In the Media: New Books for Nurses’ Summer Reading Lists

Summer’s here, and so is murder and mayhem—at least in the pages of a trio of newly released books about nurses.

In Death Without Cause: A Health Care Mystery, a young critical care nurse explores a series of unexplained deaths at the hospital where she works. Written by Pamela Klauer Triolo, PhD, RN, FAAN, the book was released in May to coincide with National Nurses Week.

Another nurse-centered mystery also hit the shelves in May. Bone Pit, featuring lead character Gina Mazzio, a registered nurse (RN), was written by RN Bette Golden Lamb and J.J. Lamb. It follows Sin & Bone and Bone Dry, the first two books in the series.

In the nonfiction department, investigative journalist Charles Graeber tells the haunting story of hospital nurse Charles Cullen. The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder documents Cullen’s crimes against patients and the health care system’s failure to prevent them.

Also in the non-fiction department is a new collection of essays about nursing called I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse. Edited by Lee Gutkind, the book will be featured in the July edition of Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge.

Other new titles—also published in 2013—take an academic approach to hot nursing topics.

Leslie Neal-Boylan, PhD, CRRN, APRN-BC, meanwhile, has different advice for nurse educators. An associate dean and professor of nursing at Quinnipiac University, Neal-Boylan’s new book—The Nurse’s Reality Gap: Overcoming Barriers between Academic Achievement and Clinical Success—helps nurse faculty prepare their students for the challenges of practice.

Night Shift Nursing: Savvy Solutions for a Healthy Lifestyle has advice for night-shift nurses, who are at higher risk than their day-shift peers for weight gain, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems. It was written by Katherine Pakieser-Reed, PhD, RN.

And last but not least, two nurse executives offer guidance for aspiring nurse leaders in Claiming the Corner Office: Executive Leadership Lessons for Nurses. Authors Connie Curran, EdD, RN, FAAN, and Therese Fitzpatrick, PhD, RN, wrote the book to help more nurses break into executive positions in the health care industry.

This commentary originally appeared on the RWJF Human Capital Blog. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors.